BOOK EVENTS
“American Workman: An Evening with Maxwell King and Louise Lippincott”
6:30-8 p.m. June 15, Heinz History Center. $10
Maxwell King and Louise Lippincott will discuss their new book, “American Workman: The Life and Art of John Kane,” recently published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The authors will reveal their inspiration behind writing “American Workman,” which is a comprehensive account of John Kane — the turn-of-the-century Scottish immigrant who achieved breakthrough success as a painter after toiling for more than 40 years as a laborer in industrial-age Pittsburgh. Along with sharing stories from their research (including some not included in the book), King and Lippincott will discuss how their new scholarship inspired the History Center’s newest exhibition, “Pittsburgh’s John Kane: The Life & Art of an American Workman.” Please register online.
Mihaela Moscaliuc & Judith Vollmer
6 p.m. June 23, virtual. Free
Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures and the University of Pittsburgh Press present a discussion with poets Moscaliuc and Vollmer. Moscaliuc’s “Cemetery Ink,” published by the Pitt Press, probes borders and memory to work through understandings of belonging—from places (including her native Romania) and histories to ways of knowing, loving, and grieving. “The Sound Boat,” the sixth collection of poetry from Pittsburgh’s Vollmer, explores human voices and geographies, stories and mysteries, and natural phenomena inside urban spaces. The event is free with registration. Video links will be emailed the morning of June 23 to all who register. The captioned video will be available to view indefinitely.
NEW BOOKS
“Queer Cinema in Contemporary France” by Todd Reeser, professor of French, Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences (Manchester UP, August 2022)
What does queer signify in twenty-first-century French film? How are lesbian, gay, and trans characters represented on screen? This book responds to these questions via the cinema of five emblematic directors: Jacques Martineau, Olivier Ducastel, Alain Guiraudie, Sébastien Lifshitz, and Céline Sciamma. From gay sex at a nudist beach to lesbian love at a high school swimming pool, from gay road trips across France to transgender journeys through time, the films treated in this study raise a host of key questions about queerness in this century. From award-winners such as “Stranger by the Lake” and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” to the lesser-known “Family Tree” and “Open Bodies,” these productions gesture toward an optimistic future for LGBTQ characters and for the world in which they live, love, and desire. “Queer Cinema in Contemporary France” traces the development of queerness across the directors’ careers, from their earliest, often unknown works to their later, major films.
“The Sound Boat: New and Selected Poems,” by Judith Vollmer, professor emerita of English, Pitt–Greensburg (University of Wisconsin Press, April 2022)
The volume includes 27 new poems, and selections from Vollmer’s five previous books. The collection explores human voices and geographies, stories and mysteries, and natural phenomena inside urban spaces.
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The University Times welcomes information about new books, journals, plays and musical compositions written or edited by faculty and staff.
Newly published works can be submitted through this link. Please keep the book descriptions short and accessible to a general audience.
Journals should be peer-reviewed. Self-published works will not be accepted. The listings also are restricted to complete works, because individual chapters, articles, works of art and poems would be too numerous.
We’ll also be highlighting some books and book talks with connections to Pitt.
If you have any questions, please contact editor Susan Jones at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.